I like going to the grocery store, and since I do it all the time, certain rituals are part of my shopping behavior. For example, I have a very specific way of loading my groceries onto the checkout conveyor belt — but chief among my shopping quirks is cart management.
I will typcally put my cart in an unobtrusive place and go get what I need. For example, in the vegetable department I’ll leave the cart out of the way and venture out to pick out my produce. Once my items are back in the cart, I’ll strike out again to the tomatoes or whatever. In the aisles I’ll put my cart somewhere that it’s not in the way.
Naturally, not everyone is on board with my techniques. The most annoyoing are:
- People who will not let go of their cart, dragging it around in front of them as they browse the aisles or pick out avocados. This is often practiced by women who put their pocketbook in the cart.
- Those who leave their cart in the center of the aisle.
- Shoppers who block the aisle by parking parallel to other carts.
I think we can all agree that if everyone did things our way, this would be a better world. Or at least the supermarket.
My favorite is the shopper who parks their cart sideways on the left side of the aisle and stands across from it looking all the varieties of canned tomatoes for 5 minutes, thus blocking the whole aisle for all the rest of us.